Emory Upton - Postbellum Career

Postbellum Career

After the war, Upton commanded a cavalry brigade in the Department of the Cumberland from July through September 1865 and served in the District of Colorado until April 1866. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on April 30, 1866. He was assigned to a board at West Point that considered a new system of infantry tactics, which was approved in 1867. In July 1866 he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 25th U.S. Infantry and transferred to the 18th U.S. Infantry in March 1869. From 1870 to 1875 he was the commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy, where he also taught infantry, artillery, and cavalry tactics.

Impressed with the lessons of the Franco-Prussian War, U.S. Army Commanding General William T. Sherman sent Upton on a tour of Europe and Asia to study military organizations, but with a special emphasis on the German Army. Upon his return, Upton wrote The Armies of Europe and Asia, which warned that European armies had developed soldiering as a profession to a more advanced state than the U.S. Army. Upton presented 54 pages of recommendations for changes in the Army, including that it establish advanced military schools, a general staff, a system of personnel evaluation reports, and promotion by examination. The U.S. interest in French military organizations and tactics, which dominated fighting in the Civil War, went into decline. He was appointed superintendent of theoretical instruction at the Artillery School of Practice located at Fort Monroe, Virginia, where he emphasized combined arms tactics.

In 1881, Upton, having returned to the rank of colonel in 1880, was in command of 4th U.S. Artillery at the Presidio of San Francisco. He suffered greatly from headaches, possibly caused by a brain tumor, and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. He is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn, New York.